I’ve been on twitter for many years now and was the first person
in our organisation to use the platform. At the time my username was @MoodDesign.
Now several years later, the company has grown and each
individual has their own work related twitter account, except me.
Following an office move, some financial forecasting and
review of our plans for growth, we decided that in order for us to grow we
needed to look at ways of improving our communications so that we could extend
our network further and take a more targeted approach to our sales drive. And
part of that process involved looking at how we communicate on our social media
platforms. So we took the decision for me to change my twitter name to run in
line with my colleagues and establish a new account that was specifically from
the company. That account needed to be reflective of our brand and could be
used for company relevant information, hints, tips and images, rather than
personal opinions and conversations.
I changed my twitter name to @Sharon_Mood and set up the new
account without any issues, linking it to a new email address to aid our return
on investment. We took the decision for our company twitter address to be @MoodDesign
under the headline ‘Social Media Mood’, as we did not want to use an individual’s
name or mislead anyone and it is an account which several people will have
access to.
The account was set up and we started to follow about 300
people in business, some we knew, some were specialists in areas that interest
us. What was really surprising was how quickly we got followed back. Within two
days we reached 100 followers, many of which were linked to social media
development and services from all around the world. Whilst these followers
aren’t necessarily our target audience, they are a source for information and
industry news.
So what have we
learnt?
What we came to realise was that the headline that you use
to link to your twitter address plays a big part in people being able to find
you and follow you. Most people use their actual name as their headline for
their personal account, but when you are setting up a company twitter account
you really need to take some time to consider some key words that will attract
the right followers.
The keywords that you use in your biography are also equally
important and should really summarise what you do as an organisation, making it
clear which demographic area you work in with links to your website. When was
the last time you reviewed yours?
You can follow our progress as a company @MoodDesign, or me
individually @Sharon_Mood. I look forward to tweeting with you.
